


Melhekhûn

by Morgyn Leri (morgynleri)



Series: Fireside Tales [93]
Category: The Hobbit - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe, GFY, Gen, Gender Identity
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-10
Updated: 2014-03-10
Packaged: 2018-01-15 05:37:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 576
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1293334
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/morgynleri/pseuds/Morgyn%20Leri
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Her pride drives her to become what she needs to be, zabdûn rather than zabdinh, though she is ever the heir in direct line.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Melhekhûn

**Author's Note:**

> Thorin Oakenshield, born female-bodied  
> Prompt: Pride  
> Alternate Universe: NOS

She has little enough left after the dragon, and she will not give up the only thing she has left. Pride drives her on, drags her from her bed every morning, forces her to leave the camp everyday in search of work. She will not let herself stop, will not let herself fail her siblings or her people.

Her pride drives her to become what she needs to be, zabdûn rather than zabdinh, though she is ever the heir in direct line. Oldest dashat of the king's only son, no matter that she is dashtinh, not dashtûn. Not nâtha, never nâtha.

After Azanulbizar, he is Melhekh, with his grandfather dead and father fled. No one thinks of him as melhekhinh, few even remember that once he might have become such rather than melhekhûn. He will have no khuzdinh to wife, nor khuzdûn to give him an heir of his body, only those children his sister might bear.

Her sister bears two sons, two dashshat who follow him everywhere, and ask after everything. The older more readily understands why he is nadadûn to their mother than nadadinh, though the younger ignores all conventions and says he is just nadad to their amad, and why should it matter nadadinh or nadadûn?

He does not try to explain again, not while they are young, nor when they are older, and both call him uncle, even if the younger forever neglects specifics. He makes both friends and enemies with that habit, and doesn't seem to care a whit what anyone else thinks of propriety.

Even when they follow him on the quest to retake Erebor - to defeat the dragon that stole all but his pride - the younger doesn't both with formality, and the older remembers it well enough for them both. The older is Rayad, after all, second only to Melhekh, chosen heir to his crown.

The hobbit they take on their journey will not understand why he is khuzdûn, not khuzdinh, so he keeps the strange being at a distance, ignoring him and deriding him. He is surprised that the hobbit keeps standing between him and danger, though, and wonders at it, but even that is not enough to let the hobbit learn that perhaps others might properly call him melhekhinh.

Only in Mirkwood is something said that might cause it all to fall apart, the elven-king using words as if he were she, and frowning when corrected. The elven-king does not understand any better than he fears the hobbit will, and does not take well to the correction. Does not remember that he is khuzdûn, and with every word heightens the risk of the hobbit learning what he must not.

At least when they escape from the elven-king, and are in Lake Town, there is no fear of such a failing. The memories of Men are short, and they do not remember that the oldest dashat of the Rayad before the fall was dashtinh. No one can tell the hobbit what he must not know.

In the Mountain, though, there he faces his greatest risk when they rescue their hobbit from the dragon. When the dragon calls him the daughter of the son of the king. As if he were nâtha, not dashat.

"I am King Under the Mountain." He will not allow the dragon to insult him by denying him who he is. He is not Melhekinh, but Melhekhûn, and this is his mountain, not the dragon's.

**Author's Note:**

> The lack of names in the story is deliberate, though I did try to get the muse to let me put the names in. Thorin is a stubborn, stubborn muse as much as he is a stubborn dwarf. He didn't want names, and refused to let me put them in.
> 
> Translations for the Khuzdul (some of it extrapolated rather than looked up):
> 
> zabdûn = male lord (used as a translation for prince)  
> zabdinh = female lord  
> dashat = son  
> dashtinh = female son  
> dashtûn = male son  
> nâtha = daughter  
> khazdinh = dwarf-woman  
> khazdûn = dwarf-man  
> naddûn = male brother  
> naddinh = female brother  
> melhekh = king  
> melhekhinh = female king (not necessarily queen, though would be termed queen regnant in English)  
> melhekhûn = male king  
> rayad = heir, particularly "crown prince" in this case  
> amad = mother
> 
> (All translations are done from the dictionary of Neo-Khuzdul provided by The Dwarrow Scholar.)
> 
> EDIT: Some words have been altered with the release of a new, complete dictionary of Neo-Khuzdul by The Dwarrow Scholar. Some have not. Any differences between this AU and the new dictionary have to do with liking older words better.
> 
> Also, I have updated the words for crown prince, in particular, because I had forgotten I'd found a word for heir later down the line of working on this AU.


End file.
